ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN TELL ABOUT YOUR IDENTITY
ARE YOU LYING ABOUT YOUR IDENTITY? ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN TELL BY HOW YOU USE YOUR MOBILE?
Every year, millions of people have their identities stolen. There’s no foolproof way to pinpoint fakers, but thanks to Italian researchers, investigators may soon have another tool at their disposal—a way to suss out frauds and other liars online with just a few clicks of a mouse.
Traditional methods of lie detection include face-to-face interviews and polygraphs that measure heart rate and skin conductance. But they can’t be done remotely, or with large numbers of people. Researchers have come up with effective computer-based tests that measure reaction time in response to true and false personal information. For the tests to work, though, experimenters have to know the truth in advance.
They asked 20 volunteers to memorize the details of a fake identity and assume it as their own. The subjects then answered a set of yes-or-no questions using a computer, as did 20 truth-telling volunteers. Questions included things like: “Is Giulia your name?” and “Were you born in 1995?” Researchers recorded each answer and measured how the subjects’ mouse cursors moved, from the bottom middle of the screen to “yes” and “no” buttons in the top two corners.
Because liars can get to be as good as the rest of us at telling the truth, the researchers threw a wrench into their experiment. In addition to the 12 expected questions, they asked 12 unexpected questions based on the volunteers’ new identities. For example, they asked about a person’s zodiac sign, based on their birth date. And they asked about the capital city of the subject’s presumed region. A fraud might have memorized a fake birthday, but not known the corresponding zodiac sign, or been able to calculate it quickly enough. “We’ve found that if people rehearse lies, lying can be as easy as telling the truth,” says Bruno Verschuere, a forensic psychologist at the University of Amsterdam who was not involved in the research, “except when you ask unexpected questions.”
The experimenters trained a computer to sort liars from truth tellers using the number of incorrect answers they gave. The team’s four machine-learning algorithms ranged in accuracy from 77.5% to 85%. But when the researchers included features of the mouse paths—such as deviation from a straight line—in their training materials, computers were able to successfully pick out the liars 90% to 95% of the time, the researchers reported.
Traditional methods of lie detection include face-to-face interviews and polygraphs that measure heart rate and skin conductance. But they can’t be done remotely, or with large numbers of people. Researchers have come up with effective computer-based tests that measure reaction time in response to true and false personal information. For the tests to work, though, experimenters have to know the truth in advance.
They asked 20 volunteers to memorize the details of a fake identity and assume it as their own. The subjects then answered a set of yes-or-no questions using a computer, as did 20 truth-telling volunteers. Questions included things like: “Is Giulia your name?” and “Were you born in 1995?” Researchers recorded each answer and measured how the subjects’ mouse cursors moved, from the bottom middle of the screen to “yes” and “no” buttons in the top two corners.
Because liars can get to be as good as the rest of us at telling the truth, the researchers threw a wrench into their experiment. In addition to the 12 expected questions, they asked 12 unexpected questions based on the volunteers’ new identities. For example, they asked about a person’s zodiac sign, based on their birth date. And they asked about the capital city of the subject’s presumed region. A fraud might have memorized a fake birthday, but not known the corresponding zodiac sign, or been able to calculate it quickly enough. “We’ve found that if people rehearse lies, lying can be as easy as telling the truth,” says Bruno Verschuere, a forensic psychologist at the University of Amsterdam who was not involved in the research, “except when you ask unexpected questions.”
The experimenters trained a computer to sort liars from truth tellers using the number of incorrect answers they gave. The team’s four machine-learning algorithms ranged in accuracy from 77.5% to 85%. But when the researchers included features of the mouse paths—such as deviation from a straight line—in their training materials, computers were able to successfully pick out the liars 90% to 95% of the time, the researchers reported.
Why it's Worth it to Purchase Your Own Domain Name
We have the opportunity to purchase millions of desirable domain names, from our own FirstnameLastname.coms to good LocationBusiness.coms and Singleword.coms. While a great LocationBusiness.com is worth holding on to, just like a good Singleword.com, the most important domain name is your own FirstnameLastname.com; those are the ones I'll be focusing on for this post.
For example, the most "valuable" domain name I own is Redbackcloud.com. Neither of the other two Redbackcloud can have it; they're going to have to settle for some alternative like TheIndianRedbackscloud.com or maybe RedbackcloudRandomJobDescription.com; RedbackHGuinness.com is available but I'm seriously considering buying it as soon as this blog goes live. Whoever wantsRedbackcloud is going to have to pry it from my cold dead, keyboard gripping, hands.
I'm lucky that my name is rare enough that I was able to get its domain. But the odds are that someone shares your name somewhere in the world. No matter how uncommon it seems where you live, the chance of someone having it in a different country or on a different continent are staggeringly high. If you're curious, just plug your own name into a Facebook search and see how many others show up. That will search about one-eighth of the population of the world so it should give you some idea.
So I've convinced you that domain names are being snapped up like beer at a student party but why should you care? You don't even need a domain name, what would you do with one?
First, trust me, you need a domain name. You might not need it today but in a few years time you'll want it. The way people think about websites is changing, and more personal landing page services like flavors.me and re.vu are popping up—and it takes a matter of minutes to set up. In a few years it may well be common to send a link to your online CV. It's worth future proofing yourself now, rather than gambling on ending up with some godawful domain name because it's the only one that includes your name.
Second, even if you never totally need it, it's damn handy. It doesn't need to link to your own website, you can forward it to Twitter, Tumblr, or one of the personal landing pages that I mentioned above. Set up Google Apps on it and get Firstname@FirstnameLastname.com as your email address. Save yourself from giving out that ridiculous hotmail address you set up when you were sixteen.
So that's why you need one, and what you can do with it, but what are the advantages of having your own domain name? Honestly, they're endless:
You gain control of what people see when they search for you
Okay so how Google organizes search results is pretty much voodoo, but there's a good chance that it weighs the words in the domain name pretty heavily. If you're looking for Big Boys in Boots magazine, odds are BigBoysInBoots.com is the website. This means that when people enter Firstname Lastname into Google, you have a good chance at controlling the first information they see. Which means that…
You make it harder to find those photos of you passed out in a gutter
We all know they exist. Those horrible photos of you dressed up as Peter Pan for a pantomime, that photo of you in a bear suit that your brother submitted toAwkwardFamilyPhotos and, yes, those photos of you engaged in a bit of one-on-one time with a friendly, and very supportive, lamp post. For every search result that you control, you knock those awful awful images one step further away from prying eyes. They're still there, but at least it's on page ten, not the top of page one! Also…
You prevent it being used against you
What happens if you piss off a tech savvy individual? I have to admit, on more than one occasion, I've had a quick look to see if the someone who's gone on my bad side was stupid enough to leave their FirstnameLastname.com available. If you don't have some control over what appears when someone enters your name into a browser and adds ".com," then you could rapidly find yourself in some awkward situations. Having an online presence that you have some control over is so imprtant. Don't leave it to Google to decide what people see when they search for you.
Right now you can get a domain name for 7 quid (about $11) a year. That's ridiculous. The price of a drink or two gets you endless benefits, an awesome email address, and control over your online image. How is that not worth it? If you don't have your own domain name, I urge you, go out and get one. Goto Redbackcloud.com or any other domain name registrar and buy the best and most relevant domain name you can find. You won't regret it. And hell, if you decide after a year you don't need it, just let the registration expire.
Owning Your Own (Domain) Name | Redback Cloud
